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Biography and Artist Statement 2018

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Judith Salmon had a strong aptitude for art as a student attending Immaculate Conception High School for Girls. She would later go on to study painting and printmaking at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, Illinois and had her debut exhibition at age 25 at The Olympia International Art Center in Kingston, 1977. Thereafter she honed her printmaking skills, and was soon awarded a Director’s Fellowship to the Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City in the mid-eighties. In 1987 a suite of her relief prints on the life and work of the Hon. Marcus Garvey, Jamaica’s first National Hero, was acquired by the National Gallery of Jamaica, on the occasion of Garvey’s centenary.

Besides being actively engaged in her community, through teaching, initiating children’s art programs or painting public murals, Judith exhibited widely in the decades of the eighties and nineties – communicating easily through her paintings and fine prints while exploring of a range of topics and media. Group Exhibitions were mounted locally in Kingston, and internationally in venues in Mexico City, New York City, Miami and Puerto Rico. In 1995 Judith was invited to participate in the global exhibition, “Through Women’s Eyes: Equality, Development and Peace”, at the World Bank, Washington D.C. Her iconic relief print – “Unmasking the Goddess,” was also selected for the exhibition, “ Global Focus: Women in Art and Culture”, cosponsored by The National Museum of Women in The Arts and the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women which convened in Beijing, China.

Returning to studies at the beginning of the millennium, Judith completed her B.A. Liberal Arts in 2001, Norwich University, Vermont. Her concentration in Black Cultural Studies was richly impacted by stimulating insights gained from her visit to Senegal, West Africa. She went on to do the M.F.A in Studio Arts, at Johnson State College, VT., in 2007 and later completed a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies at the University of South Florida in 2011. Being committed to the importance of art in education, Judith has taught art in a variety of populations and communities- including eight years with the non-profit organization Very Special Arts, Florida, which encourages creativity among adults and children with disabilities. Coming full circle on her Diasporic journey Judith returned to her home base in Kingston, Jamaica where she keeps her studio. She lectured in Printmaking at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, 2014-17. Speaking about her studio art production, she states:

“I’m drawn to exploring a variety of materials and processes, so that mixed media, collage, fiber, wax, found-objects are embraced for their potential to create new and broader meaning and associations. My work across these media shares an involvement with time. I explore transience, the accumulation and layering of experience, loss and renewal. The hand- made objects and painted expressions become doorways to memory”.